Margaret Prescott Montague, Author, Papers A&M 1110

Margaret Prescott Montague, Author, Papers A&M 1110


[logo]

West Virginia and Regional History Center

1549 University Ave.
P.O. Box 6069
Morgantown, WV 26506-6069
Business Number: 304-293-3536
wvrhcref@westvirginia.libanswers.com
URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu

Staff of the West Virginia & Regional History Center

Repository
West Virginia and Regional History Center
Identification
A&M 1110
Title
Margaret Prescott Montague, Author, Papers 1893-1958
URL:
https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/ark:/99999/197965
Quantity
6.5 Linear Feet, Summary: 6 ft. 5 3/4 in. (14 document cases, 5 in. each); (3 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.)
Creator
Montague, Margaret Prescott, 1878-1955
Location
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Language
English

Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Margaret Prescott Montague, Author, Papers, A&M 1110, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Processing Information

In September 2018, A&M 1152 and 1169 were formally merged into this collection. The former custodian of this collection had donated A&M 1152 and 1169 the year following the donation of A&M 1110, likely with the intention of adding them to the first collection. Previous processors had already interfiled 1152 and 1169 into this collection and described the three collections as one. When reprocessing this collection, we tried to maintain the original intellectual arrangement as best we could. The note from the original paper finding aid is as follows:
The Montague papers were presented to the West Virginia Collection by the author's brother, the Reverend Cary Montague of Richmond, Virginia. Miss Ellen Lee Ball had custody of the papers from 1955 to 1958 and spent much time and effort in arranging and annotating the collection. Further processing and cataloging has been done by the staff of the West Virginia Collection.


Biographical / Historical

Margaret Prescott Montague was born on November 28, 1878 at "Oakhurst," the Montague homestead near White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Of New England parentages, she inherited the cultural milieu of the Back Bay as well as that of the West Virginia highlands. Her early education was undertaken by her parents; in her middle teens she was attending Miss Gussie Daniel's school in Richmond, Virginia. It was Miss Gussie, according to Miss Montague, who "discovered my small ability."

Under the influence of the local colorists, Miss Montague turned to the mountain folk of West Virginia for her early novels: The Poet, Miss Kate , and I (1905), The Sowing of Alderson Cree (1907), and In Calvert's Valley (1908). Linda (1912), showed a trend away from the earlier folk literature, oscillating as the novel did between the Back Bay and the back woods.

From 1909 on Miss Montague was subject to "severe physical afflictions" that left her partially blind and deaf for the rest of her career. Always an intensely religious person, she now sought to find self-realization and truth in Christian mysticism and a philosophy of ennoblement through suffering. These themes marked much of her work after 1915. Closed Doors (1915) was a study of handicapped children at the West Virginia School of the Deaf and Blind. In "The Lucky Lady" (1933) Miss Montague asserted that man was still master of his fate and also his handicaps. She recorded her mystical experiences in such articles as "Twenty Minutes of Reality" (1916) and "Leaves from a Secret Journal'' (1926) written under the nome de plume of Jane Steger.

From 1915 she turned more and more to the shorter forms of prose, the short story and essay. She wrote a series of wartime stories, and won the first O. Henry Memorial Prize in 1919 for "England to America" which has become an American classic. Her passionate interest in politics, absent in most of her writings, was the moving force of "Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge" (1920), a plea for ratification of the League Covenant. The story was made into a film and became an issue in the presidential election of 1920.

In Deep Channel (1923), her last full length novel, Miss Montague returned to the locale of her earlier novels, yet the book was a more skillful and sophisticated work, closely tied to the new literature of the 1920s and, in the words of Professor Stuart P. Sherman, "animated by the passion for self-realization." In a lighter vein were the legendary exploits of Tony Beaver, the Paul Bunyan of West Virginia, which Miss Montague published as a collection of short stories in Up Eel River (1928).

While the author continued writing short stories, essays, poetry, and completed a long unpublished novel in the 1930s, her didactic writings had been part of a world less harsh and irrational than that the United States of the depression decade. Her works now belong to a passing era. Nevertheless, she was active with her pen almost until the time of her death in Richmond, Virginia on September 26, 1955.

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes and notebooks, diaries, press clippings, photographs, and printed material of a West Virginia essayist, short-story writer, poet and novelist, who won the first O. Henry Memorial Prize in 1919 for her short story, "England to America." The papers include correspondence from editors, publishers, agents and critics; readers' correspondence; family letters; manuscripts of short stories and other works; outlines, plots, and drafts; and diaries and notebooks primarily concerned with religious meditation, Christian mysticism, and Miss Montague's concept of human ennoblement through suffering. Correspondents include Bernard Baruch, Russell Doubleday, Howard M. Gore, M.A. DeWolfe Howe, Vachel Lindsay, Christopher Morley, Philip Van Doren Stern, Joseph P. Tumulty, and Woodrow Wilson.

Related Material

582, 1110, 1348, 2218

Subjects and Indexing Terms

  • Authors -- Letters and papers
  • Baruch, Bernard M. (Bernard Mannes), 1870-1965
  • Diaries and journals.
  • Doubleday, Russell, 1872-1949
  • Gore, Howard M.
  • Howe, M. A. De Wolfe (Mark Antony De Wolfe), 1864-1960
  • Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931
  • Montague, Margaret Prescott, 1878-1955
  • Morley, Christopher, 1890-1957
  • Poets and poetry.
  • Religion. SEE ALSO Churches.
  • Stern, Philip Van Doren, 1900-1984
  • Tumulty, Joseph P. (Joseph Patrick), 1879-1954
  • Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
  • Women's history -- 1850-1899
  • Women's history -- 1900-1929
  • Women's history -- 1929-1950
  • Women's history -- 1951-present

Significant Persons Associated With the Collection

  • Baruch, Bernard M. (Bernard Mannes), 1870-1965
  • Doubleday, Russell, 1872-1949
  • Gore, Howard M.
  • Howe, M. A. De Wolfe (Mark Antony De Wolfe), 1864-1960
  • Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931
  • Montague, Margaret Prescott, 1878-1955
  • Morley, Christopher, 1890-1957
  • Stern, Philip Van Doren, 1900-1984
  • Tumulty, Joseph P. (Joseph Patrick), 1879-1954
  • Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Container List

Correspondence
1893–1958
Scope and Contents

Includes correspondence from editors, publishers, agents, and critics; readers; general correspondence; and correspondence from Montague herself.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 1
    Publishers' Correspondence, A
    1911–1942
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, American Foundation for the Blind, The American Red Cross, Mary Asquith, Atlantic Monthly.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 2
    Publishers' Correspondence, Atlantic Monthly, Ellery Sedgwick
    1909–1938
  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 3
    Publishers' Correspondence, B-E (1 of 2)
    1905–1946
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include Baker and Taylor Company; Katharine N. Birdsall; Brentano's; Charles Wakefield Cadman; Frederich H. Chase; Christian Observer; Robert Collier, Inc.; Crowell Publishing Company; Daniels Studios; A. Mervyn Davies; Doubleday, Doran and Company; Doubleday, Page and Company; E.P. Dutton and Company; The Exposition Press.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 4
    Publishers' Correspondence, B-E (2 of 2)
    1905–1946
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include Baker and Taylor Company; Katharine N. Birdsall; Brentano's; Charles Wakefield Cadman; Frederich H. Chase; Christian Observer; Robert Collier, Inc.; Crowell Publishing Company; Daniels Studios; A. Mervyn Davies; Doubleday, Doran and Company; Doubleday, Page and Company; E.P. Dutton and Company; The Exposition Press.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 5
    Publishers' Correspondence, F-M
    1904–1944
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include The Form; Goldwin Pictures Corporation; Harper and Brothers; Harper's Bazaar; Harper's Magazine; Houghton Mifflin Company; Jefferson Jones; The Ladies Home Journal. Christopher Morley; Liberty; Library of Congress; Little, Brown Company; C.R. Maculey Photoplays, Inc.; The MacMillian Company; Frank A. Munsey Company.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 6
    Publishers' Correspondence, N-Z
    1916–1941
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include National Broadcasting Company; The North American Review; The Outlook Company. Lawrence F. Abbott; Felix Orman; Paget Literary Agency; Pocket Books, Inc.; Board of Christian Education, Presbyterian Church, USA; Reader's Digest; Charles I. Reid; Paul R. Reynolds; Saturday Review of Literature. Henry S. Canby; Robert Haven Schauffler; Henry Staton; The Steck Company; Service for Authors, Inc.; The Trend; Toronto Star Weekly; The Volta Review; Walt Disney Productions, Lts.; The Yale Review. Henry S. Canby; The West Virginia Review.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 7
    Publishers' Correspondence, "England to America"
    1919–1944
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include Oscar Cargill, Edgar White Burrell, Russell Doubleday, Meredith Page, Ellery Sedgwick, Philip Van Doren Stern.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 8
    Readers' Correspondence, "England to America"
    1919–1937
  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 9
    Readers' Correspondence, "Leaves from a Secret Journal"
    1925–1941
  • Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 10
    Readers' Correspondence, "The Lucky Lady"
    1933–1936
  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 1
    Readers' Correspondence, "Twenty Minutes of Reality"
    1916–1940
  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 2
    Readers' Correspondence, "Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge"
    1920
    Scope and Contents

    Also includes publishers correspondence.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 3
    Readers' Correspondence, Regarding Various Short Stories and Articles (1 of 2)
    1907–1941
  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 4
    Readers' Correspondence, Regarding Various Short Stories and Articles (2 of 2)
    1907–1941
  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 5
    General Correspondence from Well-Known Persons (folder 1 of 2)
    1911–1942
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include
    Dr. E. A. Alderman
    Mary Antin
    Irving Bacheller
    Bernard M. Baruch
    Gamaliel Bradford
    Milledge L. Bonham
    Glenn Clark
    Frederick Perry Fish
    M.A. DeWolfe Howe
    Basil King
    Mary Johnson
    Rufus M. Jones
    Howard M. Gore
    Gardiner Martin Lane
    Vachel Lindsay
    Edward W. Osborne
    Margaret Dreier Robins
    Laura E. Richards
    Stuart Pratt Sherman
    Joseph P. Tumulty
    James Southall Wilson
    Woodrow Wilson
    Simon Wolf
    Dr. Elwood Worcester
    Owen D. Young
    Sir. Francis Younghusband

  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 6
    General Correspondence from Well-Known Persons (folder 2 of 2)
    1911–1942
    Scope and Contents

    Correspondents include
    Dr. E. A. Alderman
    Mary Antin
    Irving Bacheller
    Bernard M. Baruch
    Gamaliel Bradford
    Milledge L. Bonham
    Glenn Clark
    Frederick Perry Fish
    M.A. DeWolfe Howe
    Basil King
    Mary Johnson
    Rufus M. Jones
    Howard M. Gore
    Gardiner Martin Lane
    Vachel Lindsay
    Edward W. Osborne
    Margaret Dreier Robins
    Laura E. Richards
    Stuart Pratt Sherman
    Joseph P. Tumulty
    James Southall Wilson
    Woodrow Wilson
    Simon Wolf
    Dr. Elwood Worcester
    Owen D. Young
    Sir. Francis Younghusband

  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 7
    Correspondence from Dr. and Mrs. Richard C. Cabot
    ca. 1914-1943
  • Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 8
    Correspondence of Mrs. K. G McGee
    1936–1940
  • Mixed Materials Box: 15 Folder: 1
    Miscellaneous Correspondence
    1893–1958
  • Mixed Materials Box: 15 Folder: 2
    Correspondence from Montague's European Trip
    1907
    Scope and Contents

    Many of the letters are written to family. This folder was originally part of A&M 1152.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 15 Folder: 3
    Correspondence from Montague's European Trip
    1907
    Scope and Contents

    Many of the letters are written to family. This folder was originally part of A&M 1152.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 15 Folder: 4
    Letters from Montague to her Family
    1907–1919
    Scope and Contents

    Some of these letters were written while on her European tour.

Writings
ca. 1895-1946
Scope and Contents

Includes drafts (typescripts and manuscripts), published works, and various notes. Works include short stories, articles, essays, plays, poetry, and a novel. Also includes a few folders of publications by other people that Montague may have used for inspiration.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 3
    Drafts, Short Stories
    ca. 1895-1946
    Scope and Contents

    Mostly typescripts of short stories, some with annotations. Stories include:
    "Altars of Earth"
    "At the Fall of the Year"
    "The Baby Angel"
    "The Battlefield"
    "The Benefit of the Doubt"
    "Big Music"
    "Blue Silk and Gingham Apron" (1st page)
    "The Cloak of Dreams"
    "Cock Crow"
    "Concerning the Mystery"
    "The Dark Tower"
    "Fine Growing Weather" and "Nice Growin Weather"
    "The First Breakfast "
    "In the Grip of John Hamilton"
    "A Good Bargain"
    "Grand Rough Old Martin Luther"
    "The Great Sleep Tanks"
    "The Kiss at Large"
    "The Last Tenth"
    "The Lucky Lady"
    "North Plays South"
    "Portrait of a Saint"
    "Pretty Gal"
    "The Squirt Gun"
    "The Storm in the Mountains"
    "The Third Rail"
    "To the Unknown People"
    "The Troubles of Tipsy Turpentine"
    "Victory of Dorothy Ellis"
    "Visitors from the Air"
    "The Ways of Providence"
    "What Trouble Is"
    "The Word"
    "A Yard of Nonsense"

  • Mixed Materials Box: 4
    Drafts, Articles and Other Prose
    ca. 1895-1946
    Scope and Contents

    Mostly typescript drafts of articles and other prose writings, some with annotations. Includes:
    Acquiring a Social Conscience
    At the Long Last
    Baby and the Steam Shovel
    Blue Birds for the Blind
    Christians and Criminals
    The Closing of the Doors
    The Danger in Gardens
    Deliverance
    A Dinner of Herbs
    Do They Bite You
    Dog's Eye View
    The Doll-Baby Dresses
    A Farewell and a Message
    A Fugitive Seeks Sanctuary
    The Game
    The Girl and the Mountains
    God and a Few Souls
    The Great Awakener
    The Ground of Thy Beseeching
    The Hidden Flame
    Home to Him's Muvver
    The Hungry House
    John Bull at His Window
    Lee's Old Gray Nag
    Let the People Praise Thee, O God
    Lion-In-The-Conversation
    The Night After Christmas
    An Offering of Worship
    An Open Letter to All the School Children in the United States
    Papa in Soap
    Pictures of Englishman
    Pioneers of Silence
    In Praise of Machines
    Prayer for the World
    The Rally For Death
    Shingles from an Old Roof
    Sister Water
    Squints
    Some Lesser Loves
    Tangier
    Thoughts
    Time for Immemorial to Seek the Rest Cure
    Time Dispatch (Richmond), Letter to the Editor
    To the Women of America
    A Tribute of Praise
    Waifie
    When Gold May Lose its Glamour
    When Nature Takes the Lid Off
    The Women's Moment

  • Mixed Materials Box: 5 Folder: 1-3
    Drafts, Plays
    1921–1943
    Scope and Contents

    Typescript drafts of "The Spell," "For the Fighting Men," and "Gold"

  • Drafts, Poetry
    ca. 1895-1945
    Scope and Contents

    Includes a variety of notes and drafts of poetry.

    • Mixed Materials Box: 5 Folder: 4-8
      Draft poems and collections of poetry
      ca. 1905-1943
      Scope and Contents

      Mostly typescripts, some with annotations. One folder contains material that may have originally been part of A&M 1152.

    • Mixed Materials Box: 6 Folder: 1-2
      Poems from "A Toast to Life," "From a Secret Journal," and other manuscript poems
      ca. 1895-1945
    • Mixed Materials Box: 6 Folder: 3-5
      Poetry notes and drafts
      ca. 1895-1945
    • Mixed Materials Box: 6 Folder: 6
      Poetry note pads and drafts
      ca. 1895-1945
    • Mixed Materials Box: 6 Folder: 7
      "Verse"
      1937
  • Mixed Materials Box: 7
    Drafts, Novel
    1936–1941
    Scope and Contents

    Two typescripts of unpublished novel, The Answer, (also called Life and Hands ?) with publishers critiques and rejection notices.

  • Notes on Works
    1893–1946
    Scope and Contents

    Includes outlines, plots, and drafts of short stories and essays, novels, plays, and miscellaneous works.

    • Mixed Materials Box: 8 Mixed Materials Box: 16
      Short Stories and Essays
      1893–1946
      Scope and Contents

      Includes outlines, plots, and drafts of short stories and essays, including:
      The Answer Is…
      Beauty of the Earth
      Belief in Billy
      Brains, Brawn, and Something More
      Catching Stride with One's Self
      The Christmas Gift
      Closed Doors
      Danger in Gardens
      The Dogwood Road
      The Door Keeper
      Drifts of Opinion on the Colour Question
      Ecstasy
      Education for Life
      The Engagement
      Fiction and New York
      Fire
      For Age on Age
      For France
      The Forgiveness of Sins
      The Gate of Life and other Ann Eversole stories
      The Gift
      The Gift of Herself
      A Good Bedside Manner
      Great Adventure
      Hidden Portals
      The Hound of Heaven
      I Must Confess
      The Impending Fate
      The Inexorable Master
      The Intoxication of Danger
      The King's Letter
      The Lady Agriculturist
      Leaves From a Secrete Journal
      Let's Save the World
      The Little Comrade
      Looking at Life
      The Lost Love
      Loving His Brother
      The Millions Inherit Kitty
      A Million Little Colorless Women
      The Negro Sense of Humor
      O Muse!
      O Theophilus
      On Brick Walls
      On the Lack of Fairness in the American Nation
      On Flowers
      On Saying Sara
      On Voyages of Discovery
      Once I Was A Water Lilly
      Out Burst
      The Old Man of the Sea
      The Other Truth
      The Pulse of the World
      Salvation for the Magazines
      The Seeing Eye
      Studies on Loneliness
      Temper or Temperature
      This is the Day
      The Three Swords
      Thus Spake Zarathustra
      To Miss Mary Jefferies
      To Recommend Edward Imagination
      The Most Unforgettable Person I Ever Knew [Twenty Minutes of Reality?]
      Understanding Algernon
      The Unexpectedness of God
      Up Eel River
      The Victoria
      A Travel Story
      Wings of the Morning
      White Hollyhock

    • Mixed Materials Box: 9 Folder: 1
      Novels
      1925, undated
      Scope and Contents

      Includes outlines and plots for the following novels:
      A Call for Volunteers
      The Alabaster Box
      The Builder
      The Curse
      Money

    • Mixed Materials Box: 9 Folder: 2
      Plays
      undated
      Scope and Contents

      Includes outlines, notes, and drafts for the following plays:
      Elizabeth
      Home
      The Spell

    • Mixed Materials Box: 9 Folder: 3-7
      Miscellaneous
      undated
      Scope and Contents

      Includes notes, plots, etc. on unidentified works as well as notes on writing.

  • Mixed Materials Box: 10 Mixed Materials Box: 11 Mixed Materials Box: 17
    Diaries and Notebooks
    1906–1948
    Scope and Contents

    Includes diaries and notebooks, which include religious meditations and observations, drafts of works and notes about her work, correspondence, and more:

    Box 10.
    Diary, 1906, 1927
    Diary, 1907 (account of a trip to Europe)
    Diary, 1917, 1925-1927 (record of personal income, charities, household accounts, writing and manuscripts submitted for publication)
    Diary, Etc., 1927, 1928, 1929, 1942 (also portions of a play, Awake)
    Diary, 1929-1933
    Diary, Meditation, 1929
    Guidance record, 1929
    Diary, 1935-1938, 1944
    Diary, 1936-1940

    Box 11:
    Diary, A Tapestry of Thought, 1908-1912, 1915-1925 (portions published as "Leaves from a Secrete Journal")
    Diary, A Book of Pleasant Things, 1947-1948 (essays and reminiscences)
    Diary, 1910-1915 (manuscripts sent to publishers), 1927 (religious meditations)
    Notebook, 1908 (notes and plots)
    Notebook, undated (notes, plots, and accounts)
    Notebook, undated (Biblical and religious quotations)
    Notebook undated (notes on the blind)
    Note pads, 2 vols (notes, poetry and letters)
    Notes for lectures, 1927

    Box 17:
    Diary with notes on flowers
    "Diary" of verse and miscellaneous notes
    Booklet, "A Happy New Year" (originally from A&M 1169)
    Notebook, undated
    Notebook, undated
    Miscellaneous Notes

  • Mixed Materials Box: 12
    Material on Suffering, Etc.
    undated
    Scope and Contents

    Includes essays, notes, and outlines on handicaps, death, fear, nerves, the philosophy of suffering, and Montague's attitude toward suffering.

  • Printed Works
    1905–1942
    Scope and Contents

    Includes published articles, poetry, short stories, etc., materials advertising Montague's works, and inspirational publications.

    • Mixed Materials Box: 13 Folder: 1-6
      Printed Works and Advertisements
      ca. 1905-1942
      Scope and Contents

      Includes published articles, poetry, short stories, etc. appearing in newspapers, journals, magazines, etc., as well as material advertising "The Lucky Lady," "Up Eel River," "Deep Channel," and the film version of "Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge." Also includes the short version of "Twenty Minutes of Reality" along with a complete but unbound copy of the book version. (A second, incomplete unbound copy of "Twenty Minutes of Reality" will be housed with the Rare Book Librarian for use as a teaching tool.)

    • Mixed Materials Box: 13 Folder: 7-11
      Inspirational Publications
      1917–1939
      Scope and Contents

      Includes pamphlets, booklets, etc. mostly on religious and psychological subjects.

    • Oversize Clippings
      1925–1940
      Scope and Contents

      Includes oversize clippings from magazines and newspapers that contain published works. Also includes sheet music for "The Christmas Street"

Clippings
Mixed Materials Box: 14 1905–1955
Scope and Contents

Press clippings (mostly from newspapers) and biographical information. Includes two clipping scrapbooks, for "The Poet, Miss Kate, and I" and "In Calvert's Valley." Also includes folders of clippings for "Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge," "Closed Doors," "Deep Channel," "England to America," "Home to Him's Muvver," "Linda," "Twenty Minutes of Reality," and "Up Eel River" as well as miscellaneous clippings.